By Ann Roosevelt
The Army and Marine Corps recently explained to industry the acquisition strategy for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program at a three-day pre-proposal conference at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.
JLTV is a joint Army/Marine Corps program with the Army designated as the lead service. While procurement is a couple of years off, the total requirement could be for more than 140,000 vehicles.
The Request for Proposals was released in early February for proposals to develop a JLTV Family of Vehicles (FoV). The JLTV FoV, and companion trailers, must be able to perform multiple mission roles and designed to provide protected, sustained, networked mobility for personnel and payloads across the full Range of Military Operations (ROMO).
The deadline for proposals is April 14. Based on the proposals, the Joint Program Office will award Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) contracts to three contract awards based on best value in July. Col. John “Steve” Myers, project manager, Joint Combat Support Systems (JCSS), said, “This will then launch the planned contract performance of the Technology Development Phase wherein the JLTV prototypes will be developed and tested.”
A System Development Demonstration (SDD) phase is currently planned to get underway in 2011 for the JLTV where two contractors will complete the design and development of the JLTV FoV, and companion trailers, and ultimately, compete to produce and field multiple JLTV variants.
Lt. Col. Wolfgang Petermann, JLTV Army product manager, said, “This was an important investment of time for key industry representatives to come to Selfridge in order to fully understand the entire scope and direction of the JLTV effort and hear the government’s “lessons learned” during more than three years of precursor research and development efforts.”
USMC JLTV program manager Lt. Col. Ben Garza said, “We have an achievable schedule and the overwhelming turnout by industry is indicative of how successful this program is going to be.
Six teams are competing for JLTV contracts, Lockheed Martin [LMT] and BAE Systems, General Dynamics [GD] and AM General, Boeing [BA] and Textron [TXT], Northrop Grumman [NOC], Oshkosh [OSK] and Plasan, BAE and Navistar [NAVZ], and Force Protection [FRPT] and DRS Technologies [DRS].
JLTV will be a vehicle platform using to the maximum extent, solutions and technology being developed under the Army’s Future Combat Program (FCS), the Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), the Army Research Lab (ARL), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) as well as commercial industry advances.
The JLTV FoV will eventually be used by all the services. Several foreign governments have already expressed a strong interest in joining the development of the JLTV vehicles.
Conference attendees received “a two-inch thick spiral-bound handout which outlines in detailed fashion the JLTV requirements for mobility, transportability, communications connectivity, and supportability,” the service said.
JLTV will use the Earned Value Management (EVM) process to control cost, stay on schedule and achieve performance objectives. The FCS program also uses this method (Defense Daily, March 5).
The conference included presenters who offered detailed guidance on how to craft their proposal to address the four evaluation factors: technical, logistics commonality, cost and past performance/small business participation. More than 200 industry representatives attended and there were international attendees as well.
In Late February, the Lockheed Martin/BAE team and the BAE/Navistar Team unveiled their respective JLTV efforts, while Northrop Grumman and Oshkosh kept their JLTV vehicle out of sight to protect proprietary interests.
Lockheed Martin and BAE unveiled a second JLTV prototype at the Association of the United States Army Winter Symposium Feb. 27. The second operational prototype Utility Variant Light Payload Carrier C vehicle “demonstrates that we are committed to proposing and delivering a low-risk, affordable family of vehicles for JLTV,” said Louis DeSantis, vice president and general manager of Ground Vehicle Systems at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration-Owego. This vehicle also demonstrates commonalities for the JLTV FoV with identical cabs, chassis and drivetrains.
BAE and Navistar unveiled their Category B JLTV payload prototype the same day. Matt Riddle, vice president of Wheeled Vehicles at BAE, said the approach is “focused on the user.” The design aims to optimize the iron triangle of payload, protection and performance, and “we meet all the requirements now. We’re the only ones who do.”
Inside a tent off-limits to competitors, Kenneth Juergens, JLTV program director, Northrop Grumman/Oshkosh Truck Corp. team, said everyone wants to increase protection for soldiers and marines but not reduce mobility or maneuverability. The team’s concept vehicle has “many areas well beyond the threshold capability requirements,” said Stephen Zink, Oshkosh Truck vice president, Defense. “The concept shows the art of the possible, now and over the next three decades,” said Joe Taylor, vice president Combat Systems, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.